Drug-traffickers get jail terms

TDT | Manama

The Fourth High Criminal Court yesterday sentenced two Gulf nationals to life in prison and fined them BD10,000 each for trafficking drugs through King Fahd Causeway. The two men were part of a gang that also consisted of Bahraini defendants and is responsible of trafficking, selling, and distributing hashish and marijuana in the Kingdom.

The court also sentenced both defendants to deportation, while the remaining gang members were punished each with three years of imprisonment and fined BD1,000 for drugs abuse and possession. The case was initially formed when the investigations of a lieutenant in the Anti-Narcotics Department at the Interior Ministry led to the first defendant, a Bahraini man, who was caught red-handed last year while selling BD300 worth of hashish to a secret police informant.

The first defendant cooperated with the police and led them to one of his Bahraini accomplices, after arranging a deal to buy a piece of hashish worth BD3,900. An ambush was set up by the police to arrest the second defendant, who attempted to escape, but was eventually caught. The piece of hashish was found in his possession when the car was searched.

According to court files, the second defendant, also a Bahraini man, was taken to the directorate’s building in Adliya for interrogation, and while he was there, he received a call on the Snapchat app from the third defendant, one of the two Gulf nationals sentenced to life.

While on loudspeaker, the third defendant was heard by the lieutenant saying that he had received an order from the fourth defendant, the second Gulf national, to deliver a kilogramme of hashish to the second defendant, who was in police custody. A meeting was arranged and police surprised the third defendant, who was waiting in his car for the second defendant to come and collect the quantity from him.

When asked, he denied any knowledge of a drug deal. However, a thorough inspection of his vehicle revealed that the drugs were professionally stashed in the air filters of the vehicle. The man confessed in the interrogation that he trafficked the piece through King Fahd Causeway, as per the instructions of the fourth defendant, in order to deliver to a dealer here (the second defendant).

Further investigations showed that the fourth defendant regularly provides the drugs and hands them over to the third defendant, who takes the responsibility of trafficking into Bahrain and delivering them to the second defendant here.